sustainability Article Resilient Caribbean Communities: A Long-Term Perspective on Sustainability and Social Adaptability to Natural Hazards in the Lesser Antilles Corinne L. Hofman 1,2,*, Charlotte Eloise Stancioff 1 , Andrea Richards 1,2, Irvince Nanichi Auguiste 3, Augustine Sutherland 4 and Menno L. P. Hoogland 1,2 1 Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, 2333 CC Leiden, The Netherlands; [email protected] (C.E.S.); [email protected] (A.R.); [email protected] (M.L.P.H.) 2 Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV/KNAW), 2311 BE Leiden, The Netherlands 3 Independent Researcher, Touna Aute 00109-8000, Kalinago Territory, Commonwealth of Dominica; [email protected] 4 Independent Researcher, Kalinago Community, Kingstown VCO120, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: Caribbean islands, like other Small Island Developing States (SIDS), are at the center of the vulnerability debate as current climatic trends predict elevated sea levels and increased frequency of storms, leading to significant challenges for local communities. Caribbean islanders Citation: Hofman, C.L.; Stancioff, have been exposed to climatic challenges since the initial occupation of the archipelago between C.E.; Richards, A.; Nanichi Auguiste, five to eight thousand years ago. They have been continually confronted with severe droughts, I.; Sutherland, A.; Hoogland, M.L.P. tropical cyclones, extreme wave events, sea-level changes, and the accompanying impacts. The Resilient Caribbean Communities: A various phenomena have stimulated island residents both to anticipate and respond to such events, Long-Term Perspective on adapting their lifestyles and socio-cultural and political structures and ties across the region over Sustainability and Social Adaptability to Natural Hazards in the Lesser time. In this article, we innovatively combine archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data with Antilles. Sustainability 2021, 13, 9807. longitudinal coastal-erosion data and ethnographic data to further develop and promote sustainable https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179807 local strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change and increasingly frequent and violent weather events on small-island settings. To find proxies, we first look into the region’s pre-colonial Academic Editors: Michelle archaeological record. Second, we delve into predictive modeling and the current and future climatic J. LeFebvre, Jon M. Erlandson and challenges for heritage sites and local coastal communities, as well as related collaborative heritage Scott M. Fitzpatrick mitigation efforts. Third, we discuss the contribution of traditional knowledge practices to climate change adaptation. The results show how the long-term perspective and multidisciplinary approach Received: 14 July 2021 adopted here may lead to realistic solutions to seemingly intractable problems. They also reveal Accepted: 27 August 2021 how collaborative projects involving all stakeholders on an equal basis in all phases of research have Published: 31 August 2021 become a top priority in climate change mitigation and heritage safeguarding. Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral Keywords: Caribbean; Lesser Antilles; sustainability; resilient societies; climate change; long-term with regard to jurisdictional claims in perspective; archaeology; predictive modeling; traditional knowledge published maps and institutional affil- iations. 1. Introduction Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Islands represent a region imagined and re-imagined by outsiders throughout history. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The Caribbean islands, in particular, were continually exploited and shaped through This article is an open access article external forces, such as island colonization, the colonial construction of their exoticism and distributed under the terms and abundance (leading to the pillaging of natural and social resources), and, currently, their conditions of the Creative Commons characterization as idyllic tourism getaways. More and more, these islands are coming to Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// the forefront of climate change discussions, with the prevailing doomsday media frenzy creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ focused on their sinking or disappearance [1]. 4.0/). Sustainability 2021, 13, 9807. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179807 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Sustainability 2021, 13, 9807 2 of 21 Climate change will always be an unfair battle. Despite contributing some of the lowest amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, the Caribbean islands are predicted to experience a range of effects due to their small size, limited resource base, growing populations, and relative isolation [2–9]. Often defined by their limitations or constraints, the islands of the Lesser Antilles display a clear vulnerability due to their small size [10–14]. According to recent research, SIDS are often the first to feel the impact of global economic policies, extreme weather events, and climate change (e.g., [6,15–17]). As a majority of the Lesser Antilles has significant infrastructure in the coastal zone, particularly related to tourism, a global sea-level rise of 1 m—as predicted toward the end of the twenty-first century—will undoubtedly be impactful in terms of livelihood and gross domestic product (GDP). For example, it is estimated that Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Kitts and Nevis will face adaptation costs ranging from 27% to 32% of their GDP [18]. These vulnerabilities, therefore, are not without reason. However, current perceptions and research myopically position these islands, like all places around the globe, at the forefront of the disaster paradigm (see also [19]). This is problematic, as it removes any chance for a global lesson on sustainability and, more importantly, resilience [20,21]. The rich archaeological record, historic accounts, present- day multivocality, and abundant biodiversity of the Caribbean, specifically of the Lesser Antilles [19,22,23], offer a different interpretation to share. Originally occupied between eight and five thousand years ago by settlers from Central and South America, the islands of the Lesser Antilles (Figure1) saw a second major migratory movement from the northeastern South American mainland around 2500 years ago [24–27]. Geological, palaeoecological, and archaeological data indicate that from the onset, Caribbean communities in the Lesser Antilles were confronted with extremely variable climatic conditions, including severe droughts and a high risk of floods and landslides caused by extreme weather events such as tropical storms and hurricanes, as well as earthquakes, volcanic action, major surges, and the continuous menace of sea-level fluctuations [28–34]. Such conditions have significantly altered the islands’ ecosystems over time, and have undoubtedly impacted Indigenous lifeways (e.g., [35–46]). To improve safety in times of austerity and climatic challenge, the locally and regionally established circuits of mobility and exchange would have been key, particularly due to the diversity of settlement locations, which enhanced diversification within the networks and strengthened existing social ties (e.g., [47–57]). These safety networks were disrupted by the European invasion of 1492 [58]. Though the Indigenous peoples certainly transmitted to the Europeans their local knowledge of how to handle the climatic hazards, such as hurricanes, the Europeans introduced their own lifestyles, which were not always suited to the local conditions or consistent with an understanding of the local environmental context and climatic varia- tions. The dramatic fate of the Indigenous Caribbean peoples and cultures in the wake of European invasion and colonization threatened the Indigenous systems of knowledge that would otherwise have been passed down from generation to generation to help manage the cyclical impacts of climate change (see also [38,59]). After the Western colonial invasion, bringing people from Africa, Asia, and Europe to the Americas to work as exploited “laborers” alongside the remaining Indigenous peoples, massive deforestation and sharp population growth increased the pressure on natural resources and ecological systems [60,61]. The trans-sociocultural dynamics between Indigenous, African, and mixed descendants since colonial times are still reflected in today’s local knowledge practices and lifeways, including those informing perspectives on climate change response [62,63]. Sustainability 2021, 13, 9807 3 of 21 Sustainability 2021, 13, 9807 3 of 22 FigureFigure 1.1. MapMap ofof thethe CaribbeanCaribbean withwith insertinsert detaildetail ofof the the Lesser Lesser Antilles. Antilles. (Map(Mapcreated createdby byMenno Menno Hoogland).Hoogland). InIn thethe CaribbeanCaribbean LesserLesser Antilles, Antilles, deforestation, deforestation, sand-mining sand-mining operations, operations, an an increase increase inin extremeextreme weatherweather events,events, and and a a dependencydependency on on tourism tourism with with inherently inherently high high ecological ecological costscosts havehave allall producedproduced environmentalenvironmental impactsimpacts asas wellwell asas socialsocial changechange comparablecomparable toto otherother regionsregions ofof thethe worldworld (e.g.,(e.g., [[64–66]).64–66]). TheseThese effects have influencedinfluenced the natural physi- phys- icalcal protection, locallocal economies,economies, land,land, homes,homes, fisheries,fisheries,